ROLLING START!!!! Ok I'm sorry.

Publisher: Sega Developer: AM2 Genre: Racing Release: March 13, Buy Now 

"Oh look at me!!!! I'm the magical man with a gum drop house and lolly

pop lanes!!!! I was being sarcastic!" So intelligently put by the great philosopher

Homer Simpson. Some people will never realize the true beauty of something until

they're singing with the fishes at the bottom the Manhattan dock. Those are the Xbox

and PS2 fanatics that overlook the inspirational games that Sega releases every month. Sure they have Red Faction

and Silent Hill 2 on their PS2 but those games are few and far between. What Daytona USA delivers is very

 delightful and warrants a purchase for any videogame addict. Features abound in this great title and I will no doubt

 educate you in this field later in the section. First off I want you to know that if you ever see a guy named evilromero

 on Daytona Battle Net just try and best him. I think you'll find he is the hardest of the hard. 

Graphics

Simply put, the best feature in the game. Fast. I mean fast. You'll wet your pants old man and not just with urine.

Intense is another word to sum up the Daytona experience. When you're flying down Rin Rin Rink at 200 mph you

physically FEEL the speed. The games graphics truly shine here with a smooth 60 fps and no pop-up whatsoever.

The cars are big and detailed with nice reflection effects, although it would have been nice to see real-time lighting

effects. The one thing that stood out for me in Daytona were the vibrant colors that splash each track. It's like playing

Nintendo's Daytona USA because the levels are so sunshiny and blue skied you'll never want to go home. Not 

satisfied? How about racing on a track with 39 other racers? You heard right 39. We're talking monumental racing 

here people. It is f$*#king great and with no slowdown. Welcome to the next Dreamcast party king.

Sound

Remember how horrid the music in Ferrari F355 Challenge was? Have not fear because the music is quite catchy

in Sega latest offering. It's not Ridge Racer by any means but it does the job. If you remember the classic

"Rolling Start" song from the original then you're in for a surprise because it makes its triumphant return!!!! What a

wonderfully obnoxious song. The car noises are very realistic with load engine noises that piercing your gut. I always

 feltlike I was actually part of the real Daytona due to the pure realism in this game. After pulling out Sega GT and

 then switching back to Daytona I could really see the strides Sega made between the two. Who the hell needs a

 super powerful Xbox when DC is doing this? 

Gameplay

Solid. So solid I can't even break a beer bottle over its head. If you missed out on Ferrari, MSR or Sega GT then

there is no excuse for you not to buy this title. The controls are very touchy but it takes little practice to acquaint

yourself with the scheme. I found myself testing each car in several different ways like using soft tires on one course 

then trying it with medium-hard for the next round. You'll find your own feel to the game after a good hour and a half

of single racing mayhem. After such mayhem then it is time for the awesome Championship Mode, which is so palm

sweating good that you'll quickly be talking to your own heart when it races up your throat. The difficulty can be 

adjusted to accommodate novice drivers. It's all here. But read on to know what the true inspirational value of this

game is...

Longevity

I've already spent hours with Single Race and Time Attacks modes. My friends and I will always whip out the

4-player feature when getting drunk on weekends and the Championship mode is obviously alluring. But what really

makes this game different? Welcome to the Daytona Battle Net where you can race up to three other players online.

I use Seganet as my ISP when playing Dreamcast games and I did have a few problems at first. Every now and then

my game would freeze up right be a race and I would be forced to reset my system. Other times my connection 

was too slow and I'd find myself booted off. In other occurrences during the race other players would quit in the

middle of the race, which ruined the intense ritual of "race-making". The problems I listed are draws back but can't

compare with the sheer joy involved with squashing your mad DUSA skills on that poor fool. After the race you

get to take a break in the chat room where you can tell everyone why you lost. It's like a little Daytona community

and it's great. You get a little nervous before every race because you want to rub it in their faces. The future of racing

games just got much brighter my friends. Go to Babbages and kick the store clerk in his scrawny little ass after asking

for your un-Microsoft related copy of Daytona USA. Suck on that Bill Gates. This'll teach you to brainwash us!

Overall: 90%

-Clay Withrow aka Evilromero